Sunday, March 8, 2015

THE DECLINE OF THE 20-GAME LOSER

We''ll get back to the idea of "blue collar" starting rotations a bit later, when we can process a little more of the data related to that concept. Let's shift gears here and take a look at what's happened to yet another baseball phenomenon that's approaching extinction.

What's that? Why, the 20-game loser, of course. A conversation with a long-ago colleague reminded us of the decline in this statistical category. As the chart at right indicates, we've had exactly one 20-game loser since 1980.

As you can see, there was a little flurry of 20-game losers in the 1960s/1970s, but that fell apart with a loud thump after 1980. The last team that had two 20-game losers: the 1973 Chicago White Sox. It's a feat that we seriously doubt will ever happen again.